Pair of plans for ‘Ike Dike’ under review
Alternative places barrier landward to protect roads
The “Ike Dike” that is being proposed to protect the coastal area from hurricane storm surge could take the form of undulating sand dunes hiding a steel or concrete core.
GALVESTON — The “Ike Dike” that is being proposed to protect the Galveston-Houston area from a potentially catastrophic hurricane storm surge could take the form of undulating sand dunes hiding a steel or concrete core.
The proposal to craft a storm barrier that would blend in with the environment and potentially strengthen beaches against erosion is one of three proposals for where and how to build a surge barrier, an idea that has gained considerable political momentum and is likely to be the subject of some form of action when the Legislature convenes next year.
The six-county Gulf Coast Protection and Recovery District, known as the storm surge district, has looked at placing the surge barrier landward of the highways that run
along the coast on Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula. Rice University’s Severe Storm Prediction Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center has recommended raising the highways as the most economical way to build a surge barrier and still ensure an evacuation route as storm water rises. Several people died during Hurricane Ike in 2008 as rising tides isolated them on the highway.
Placing the surge barrier on the beach, as has been done successfully in the Netherlands, is a proposal being pushed by the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores at Texas A&M University at Galveston. Engineering the storm barrier to be part of the natural landscape would create habitat for plants and animals and protect homes between the beach and the highway that otherwise would be left to the mercy of the storm, said Sam Brody, who teaches marine science at the center.
Brody conceded that it would be more expensive to build the barrier along the beach and would increase the estimated $5.8 billion cost. “The added cost of restoring and enhancing the environment is worth it over the long term,” Brody said.
Beach project backed
The idea is getting no resistance from the SSPEED Center and the storm surge district.
“We don’t have a strong position one way or the other,” SSPEED Center co-director Jim Blackburn said.
Chris Sallese, program manager for the storm surge district, said his agency looked at building the barrier landward of the highway because SSPEED and Texas A&M were looking at the other alternatives and the district wanted to make sure all possibilities were examined.
The beach placement has been endorsed by the West Galveston Island Property Owners Association, an umbrella group for property owner associations west of the seawall. Jerry Mohn, association president, said about 70 percent of homes on west Galveston Island are between the beach and the highway. Building the barrier along the highway would raise insurance costs and cause property values to plummet, Mohn said.
Mohn said there have been numerous meetings on Galveston Island about where to place the storm barrier, but he was not aware of any on the Bolivar Peninsula, which would have the longest section of barrier.
Bolivar wants input
The largely unincorporated peninsula, with about 2,500 of Galveston County’s population of 325,000, has little political clout and has been largely overlooked, said Jeanie Turk, a real estate agent in Crystal Beach.
“It’s really important that we have some input into that,” said Turk, who supports the idea of a barrier along the beach. The small peninsula communities bore the brunt of Hurricane Ike, which scoured several from the map.
The peninsula has rebounded from Ike, and Turk believes a shoreline barrier would lower the skyrocketing cost of flood insurance and boost development.
The final recommendation on where to put the Ike Dike will likely be made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by July 2018.
The Corps of Engineers would be responsible for overseeing construction.
“The (Corps of Engineers) will base the location of the structures on many parameters: costs, benefits, engineering design considerations, constructability, operations and maintenance requirements, environmental impacts, and others,” said Sheri Willey, Corps of Engineers project manager for the Galveston district. State and local officials could choose a different location but would have to pay the difference if it costs more, Willey said.
State role likely
A new entity that the Legislature is expected to create also could have some say about the location of the storm barrier. The Legislature’s Joint Committee on a Coastal Barrier is expected to recommend legislation for the creation of an entity made up of several state agencies to oversee the development of storm surge protection.
Even if a beachfront barrier is ultimately chosen, it will take more than a year to assess the engineering challenges and come up with a workable concept that can be adopted by the Corps of Engineers, said Jens Figlus, who teaches ocean engineering at the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores.
Figlus and graduate students are conducting experiments in a large tank at Texas A&M to determine how much sand would be needed for the dunes.
He said large quantities of sand would have to be dredged from enormous sand deposits as much as 80 miles offshore, but that the benefits could offset the cost.
“We know there is a volume out there that would work,” Figlus said. “The question is how much money do you want to spend to get to it. I’m a firm believer that it still makes sense to go get that sand.”